Las Vegas Raiders 2023 schedule release: 3 gut reactions

Primetime Bonanza

The Raiders were undoubtedly going to get a good amount of primetime games once again. With the Super Bowl being hosted in Las Vegas, the NFL wasn't going to miss a chance to showcase their venue as much as possible.

Four of their five primetime games are home games, the lone away game coming against the Detroit Lions on a Monday Night.

The way they arranged it throughout the schedule is what was wild to me. In the first ten weeks, the Raiders play four primetime games in an eight game span. They sandwich two Monday Night games against the Packers (Week 5) and Lions (Week 8) between two Sunday Night games against the Steelers (Week 3) and Jets (Week 10).

Every year I've always been very skeptical about primetime games. It always seems like the Raiders create some momentum for a small stretch of time, get the media singing some sort of praise that maybe they're finally doing something leading up to a Monday Night game. Then everyone proceeds to see us get waxed by the Chiefs in front of the whole nation and we're right back to where we started, being an AFC West disappointment getting bullied by big brother in the eyes of the national media.

But when you have two Davante Adams revenge games to highlight, and a Raiders/Steelers rivalry that has been going on since the dawn of man, you gotta do what you gotta do. I'm not mad at the extra spotlight with the primetime games, it's the extra anxiety and pressure that I'm not too fond of.